In the first attempt of its kind, three zoos in Tohoku will launch a project Tuesday to swap their female African elephants with each other to form new breeding pairs.
The three are Selcohome Zoo Paradise Yagiyama in Miyagi Prefecture, Akita City Omoriyama Zoo in ...

Sumo stablemaster Takanohana was discharged from hospital on Wednesday, one day after he was admitted following a fit of convulsions.
The 46-year-old former grand champion told Kyodo News at Akita Station that he was "just discharged" from hospital, without elaborating.
The Japan Sumo Association had said ...

U.S. author and activist Helen Keller (1880-1968) treasured the companionship of dogs throughout her life, including two Akitas from Japan that in the 1930s became the first of their kind to enter the United States.
Half a century since Keller passed away, an exhibition touring ...

The Defense Ministry has newly estimated that two land-based missile batteries the nation aims to deploy could cost around ¥400 billion ($3.6 billion), double the initial quotation, according to a government source.
If the prices of interceptor missiles and other expenses are included, the total ...

A government panel Thursday selected archaeological sites in northern Japan from the Jomon Period as potential UNESCO World Cultural Heritage candidates in 2020.
The ancient sites in Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate and Akita prefectures, representing a culture that occupied the archipelago for nearly 10,000 years, will ...

On a recent weekday morning, a group of men in their 70s and 80s gathered for baseball practice just down the road from a junior high school where students were arriving to start the day.
At full strength, the Shimohama Club baseball team's 33 players ...

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Friday sought to win local consent to deploy a U.S.-developed land-based missile shield, amid questions over the necessity of such a system as tensions ease on the Korean Peninsula.
The government is pushing a plan to install the costly Aegis ...

Twenty-three students of the Odate Middle School in Akita Prefecture in northwestern Japan attacked the house of Mr. Kishida, instructor of natural history in the school, twice on the night of June 2, throwing stones and destroying the windows and paper slides of the ...

Russian Olympic figure skating champion Alina Zagitova received an Akita puppy Saturday from a group preserving the Japanese dog breed at a presentation ceremony in Moscow attended by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Zagitova plans to name the red-haired female Akita dog Masaru, meaning victory in ...

After winning gold in women's ice skating at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February, 15-year old Alina Zagitova has her eyes set on another prize — a Japanese puppy named after Akita, the prefecture from which it originates.
While training in Japan for the Olympics, ...

Three people died Wednesday after their car fell from an expressway in Akita Prefecture, police said.
Two 20-year-old men and a 17-year-old female were found in a wrecked sports car about 50 meters below the expressway at around 7:50 a.m. They were pronounced dead after ...